


Opening the door.

by Mophie



Category: Be More Chill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:20:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21873580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mophie/pseuds/Mophie
Summary: Christine and Michael end up talking after some messed up events for both of them.
Relationships: Christine Canigula/Jake Dillinger (mentioned), Christine Canigula/Jeremy Heere (onesided)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 17





	Opening the door.

It was the night of the Halloween party and Michael was fucking miserable as all hell. He just lost his best friend. Jeremy. He lost Jeremy, and now his anxiety was through the roof. Fun! Not. He didn’t even have the energy to be fake happy for three seconds. He shifted in the bathtub. His eyes were red and puffy and his hand was bleeding from punching the mirror. He had just had a pretty bad anxiety attack but… he finally calmed down. Until he heard knocking again.

Meanwhile, over at the other side of the house, Christine was there. She was with Jeremy. Now, don’t get her wrong. She liked Jeremy. A lot actually. He was amazing. He shared her passion for theatre, he was sweet, and he was someone to talk to. She loved talking to him. She had just admitted to him that the whole ‘her and Jake’ situation wasn’t a thing anymore. He was upstairs with Chloe doing God knows what. But Jeremy… he seemed to make it all better. He told her he felt the same way, and then he did something unexpected. He asked her out. “Christine… will you go out with me?”

“Jeremy I… can’t…” Christine broke out before running off. She couldn’t. She didn’t want to explain because that would just hurt her friend. She didn’t want to hurt him… she just really wasn’t ready. She couldn’t do this. She saw Jeremy get up, seeming to want to talk to her. But she couldn’t explain. So she kept running. Eventually, she ran upstairs to a bathroom. She looked at the door and tried to open it before realizing it was locked. She could hear Jeremy calling for her.

“Christine wait!”

Christine started knocking. She knocked a few times before she actually got an answer. A quiet and slightly aggressive sounding, “What do you want?”

Michael was staring at the door, heart beating out of his chest. Of all of the times someone could’ve knocked, they had to choose when he had just finished a panic attack. He heard a squeak, “Hello? I- I need the bathroom when you’re done.” She explained. It sounded timid and urgent. Michael kinda felt bad. He told Jenna he was on his period, but hell, he didn’t know, this girl could actually be on her period. However, there was no way he was going out there.

“Find another bathroom. I’m not leaving this one.” Those words shook Christine. Was the guy… crying? His voice sounded weak and shaky. It sounded like he was hurting. She was worried and she knew Jeremy would come upstairs to look soon.

“Please! I-I need a place to hide. I promise I won’t bother you- I just need to hide. You can stay if you want, just please let me in!” She sounded desperate. Michael stared at the door for a short while longer. He didn’t give a verbal response. He just unlocked the door and gave it a slight push open so the girl knew she could come in. By the time she had entered the room, Michael was getting back in the bathtub. He had covered his hand, not wanting to worry her, however, when he winced as he was sitting down, that was enough to set her off, “Are you okay?”

The look Michael gave suddenly shook Christine. He had definitely been crying. A lot by the looks of it. He looked to the side for a moment after before looking away, “I’m fine.”

Michael was okay with letting her in, but he wasn’t in the mood to talk. He looked at the wall to avoid gaze until he saw her walk closer, “Be careful!”

Christine froze. She didn’t understand what his problem was. Until she looked down and saw broken glass by her feet. Her eyes widened and she carefully stepped around it, “What happened? Why is there broken glass?”

Michael didn’t want her to keep worrying, so he looked down more, trying to make himself small, as he pulled down his sleeve. His hand was bloody with a few glass shards in it. The only words were, “I punched the mirror.” He didn’t hear any other words. But he felt small hands touch his arm to bring his hand closer to the girl’s face to seemingly inspect it. He turned his gaze up and tensed, “What are you-”

“Can I help your hand?” She didn’t even let him finish. It was bleeding kind of heavily and by the looks of it, it really hurt. It only took a meek nod for her to suddenly start searching the medicine cabinet for rubbing alcohol, bandages, and tweezers. Eventually, she found it all and she went back to him, “Stay still.” She told him, suddenly stern. He timidly nodded again and held his arm out for her. She first pulled out the glass shards and then found a washcloth to use for the rubbing alcohol. She applied it gently and Michael couldn’t help but hiss and instinctively try to pull his hand away. Christine grabbed his wrist, “Stay. Still.” She warned him, “It’ll only hurt for a minute.” She gently applied it again and slowly cleaned the cuts on his hand from the glass. Once they were clean, she got the bandages and wrapped them around his hand.

Michael waited until she let go before moving his hand. She seemed friendly. Michael knew who Christine was, which only made his situation more painful, but he wouldn’t push her away when she needed a safe space as much as he did. “So… um… why did you need to hide out?” He decided to ask. He had seen some stuff with Jake. Was she hiding from him?

Christine looked at Michael, “...can you keep a secret?” She asked quietly. There was a silent nod from Michael and she nodded too, “Okay. Um… well, a lot has happened tonight. I was in a kinda semi-official relationship with Jake Dillinger… but he just didn’t seem to be putting as much in as me… and I think he was after Chloe… so I broke up with him. And now I’m pretty sure he’s with her in some other room.”

Michael frowned, “I’m sorry to hear that.”

Christine sighed, “That’s not it… after that, I was sitting downstairs by myself. Jeremy Heere came up to me. We recently became friends when he joined theatre. And I told him what happened with Jake. And he was understanding. And I told him that it was really nice to be able to talk to him. He said it was nice to talk to me… and then he asked me out.”

Michael looked at her, “...and what did you say?”

Christine looked down, “I said that I can’t go out with him. And then I ran up here. I’m just… not ready to be in a relationship again. But I’m so worried that I hurt him… and I just couldn’t keep talking with him.”

Michael looked down and thought about that for a while. Eventually she tapped him. “Are you okay?”

“I’m just thinking… I actually used to be friends with Jeremy. Best friends. For a while. Um… you know what a SQUIP is?”

Christine’s eyes widened, “I- yeah- those things are horrible! A kid I went to theatre camp with took one and ended up going to a mental hospital…” she looked to the side, “Why?”

Michael simply spoke, “Jeremy has one. I didn’t know how bad it was… so I took him to the mall to get one. Then I left him alone for like… five minutes. And he was gone. I called him and texted him to see where he went… and eventually I just figured he went home. So I left. The next day at school… it felt like he was avoiding me. I would go up to him, I was trying to say hi… and he just looked right through me. He kept walking. Eventually, he came up to me and suddenly was like ‘where have you been?’ And honestly, I was frustrated. You know? Because I didn’t even know that the damn thing worked… let alone that it was blocking me out. Then Brooke… Lohst? She came up and she was looking at Jeremy, and I figure she was waiting for him. So I looked at him and I asked him what was going on. But that’s when it hit me. The SQUIP- it worked. And again, I didn’t realize then that it was a bad thing. So I was excited for him, and I invited him to my house to celebrate. And I ran off. He didn’t follow me, so I came back and I looked him dead in the eyes and said ‘Jeremy, are you coming?’ And he said something like… ‘optic nerve blocking: on’. And he went with Brooke. Then… I started researching, because I’m not letting that thing take Jeremy away from me. He’s been my only friend forever. And a few nights ago… I found out the truth. I still don’t know how to get rid of it, but I know it’s bad. So I came here- I snuck in because I wasn’t even invited- and I ended up regretting it because I don’t like being around huge amounts of people. So I hid out in here.”

Christine frowned, “I’m sorry. I could… go get him if you really wanted.”

Michael looked at her, “Don’t bother. He ended up running in here a little while ago, probably before he asked you out. He looked like he was running from someone. I was laying in the bathtub and I was in my costume, which was honestly just a bunch of ‘trash type’ stuff taped onto a suit thing, and then I had monster gloves and a monster mask. And I was laying in here, and he came in, so I decided, in case he couldn’t see me, I would grab his arm. So I did, and he kinda panicked, and then I took the mask off and I said hi. And I was pissed. Long story short- because I don’t wanna get into it… I warned him, he didn’t believe me, we argued, and he called me a loser before he stormed out. Then I’m guessing he went to talk to you. So… don’t bother getting him. Honestly- he’s the last person I want to see.”

Christine looked over him carefully, “Is that why… you punched the mirror?”

Michael nodded, “He left and as soon as he did, I punched it, and then I had an anxiety attack.” He looked up at the ceiling, “...I’m sorry if that’s not what you want to hear about him. I know you guys are friends… I just… he really hurt me.”

Christine shook her head, “No… don’t apologize. He shouldn’t have done that to you. I… don’t even know how to react other than to say that… that really sucks. That Jeremy treated you like that.”

Michael gave a shrug and looked at her, “Well… not much we can do about it now. Thanks for listening though.” His eyes looked sad. He needed a friend, but the only one he had ever known had pushed him aside. He twitched kind of and looked away from her again.

Christine frowned, “I… what’s your name?”

Michael looked back at her, “Oh. Um… Michael. You’re Christine right?”

Christine nodded, “How did you know?”

Michael tried to smile, “Jeremy has had a thing for you since at least the seventh grade. He joined theatre for you. He told me all about it as soon as he got to my house that day. Hell… he was going to give you a note to tell you he was in love with you… but he decided not to. Shit- don’t tell him I told you that. But… he talks about how amazing you are all of the time. I kinda figured it out.”

Suddenly, there was screaming heard outside. Michael got tense and Christine looked at the door, “I’m going to see what’s going on. I’ll be back.” She got up and opened the door before going to look and see what was going on. That’s when she noticed the fire. Oh God…

Michael was still in the bathroom waiting. The door opened and Christine ran to Michael, taking his arm and pulling on it, “We have to go.”

“What- why? What’s going on?”

“The house is on fire, we have to get out of here!”

Michael’s eyes widened and he quickly got up to get out of the bathtub and then the house, “Okay- okay- yeah- let’s go.” He took her hand to make sure she didn’t fall behind and he quickly went to get out of the house. The fire didn’t seem to be upstairs yet, but it was downstairs. Michael couldn’t see a path as the door was blocked from their area and he didn’t know any of the other exits, “I think we might have to jump out of one of the upstairs windows.”

Christine nodded and tugged Michael to the closest window. They opened it and looked down. It was a decent fall, but it was their safest bet. She looked at Michael, “I’m scared…”

Michael looked at her and then out the window, “I’ll jump first. Then I’ll catch you. Okay?” Christine bit her lip and nodded. Michael climbed out and pushed himself off with his feet and hands. He landed on his hands and knees. He was fine though. No broken bones or anything. He stood and looked back up at the window, “Okay, your turn, I’ll try to catch you.” He put his arms out.

Christine looked at Michael, then behind her. The flames were upstairs now and jumping was her option. She did the same thing as Michael and hesitated before finally jumping. Michael’s eyes widened and he went backward a bit to catch her. She landed on top of him, knocking them both over. She was okay too, thankfully. She looked at Michael, who looked like he was sore, and in pain. Then before he could react to anything, she hugged him tightly. She buried her face into Michael’s shoulder and shuddered, “That was… terrifying!” She cried out.

Michael hesitated, not sure how to react before he relaxed and hugged her in return, “I know. You okay? Nothing broken? Nothing bleeding? Nothing bruised?” That’s what he learned to ask from his moms. Nothing broken, bleeding, or bruised. She nodded, seeming okay, just really shaken up. She was fine. Michael looked around, “Did you drive here?”

Christine shook her head, “I walked…”

Michael nodded slowly, “I drove. Can I give you a ride home?”

She looked up at Michael and nodded, starting to stand up so he could do the same. Once they were both up, Michael led Christine to his car and took her home. Then he went home to his house and went to bed. That seemed to have gone well. There was a budding friendship there.

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a one chapter thing, but I hope you enjoyed it!


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